BCN To Hold World Architecture Festival

If you're not too overwhelmed with the Pope's visit to Barcelona and the Sagrada Familia next month, then you might be interested to hear that Barcelona has been chosen to host this year's World Architectural Festival. With a host of impressive building's itself and proud of it's 9 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Barcelona would be an obvious choice.

Over 1000 architects from 80 countries will be attending to crown what the average Joe would call the coolest building of the year award, I suppose! A massive judging panel will decide on the best building over many different categories (it's not as simple as I'm making out), meaning essentially many winners. The panel is comprised of most of the top names in architectural offices around the world including Sir Norman Foster, responsible for the communications tower in Barcelona, and also the planned transformation of FC Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium, too.


And what better backdrop than the sprawling Metropolis that is Barcelona? The city is an amazing example of gentrification and transformation of urban planning. So much so, in fact, that The Royal Institute of British Architects awarded its Gold Medal to the entire city of Barcelona instead of an individual in 1999. Sir Richard Rogers is also heading an “Urban Task Force” which is said to provide “Barcelonization” of 10 British cities, including Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, amongst others. To this note, one of the keynote speeches of the festival is Josep Acebillo's "Transformation of Barcelona".

The Festival is to be held from the 5th to 9th November, and tickets are still available. If you're looking for accommodation in Barcelona during the conference, then check out BCN Rentals website.